Polyarylene sulfide (hereinafter, also referred to as “PAS”), represented by polyphenylene sulfide (hereinafter, also referred to as “PPS”), is an engineering plastic excelling in heat resistance, chemical resistance, flame retardancy, mechanical strength, electrical characteristics, dimensional stability, and the like. PAS can be formed into various molded products, films, sheets, fibers, and the like by ordinary melt processing methods such as extrusion molding, injection molding, and compression molding. Therefore, PAS has been generally used in a wide range of technical fields such as electrical devices, electronic devices, devices for automobiles, and packaging materials.
A method for producing PAS is disclosed in Patent Document 1.
Patent Documents 2 to 4 disclose PAS continuous polymerization devices in which pressure-resistant polymerization vessels are connected in series, and reaction solutions are transferred between each polymerization vessel using a difference in pressure, and also disclose methods for the continuous polymerization of PAS using the devices thereof.
In addition, Patent Document 5 discloses a method for producing sulfur-containing polymers, the method including the steps of (a) preparing in a first reaction vessel a mixture containing a sulfide and a solvent, and (b) reacting an aromatic dihalogen compound and the sulfide in a second reaction vessel to form a sulfur-containing polymer.